Healthy Role
Modeling in Math
Classrooms
INCLUDING NUTRITION EDUCATION
Nutrition Education in Math Preschoolers
 Use nutritious foods as examples:
 Learning numbers
 Counting (1 glass of milk, 2 bananas, 3 carrots)
 Adding
 Shapes
 Sizes
Nutrition Education in Math –
Elementary School
 Use recipes or other measures of food to help teach
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fractions (1/2 pound apples, 1/3 cup milk).
Recipes can teach conversions between measurements
(i.e. 16 oz = 1 lb, 3 tsp = 1 Tbsp, etc.)
Food journal activity can teach charting and
percentages.
Hold a taste testing and graph results.
Reading and doing calculations from
food labels.
Recipe Conversion Activity
• Double the Rice recipe
•
•
•
•
using the recipe
conversion worksheet.
What food groups are
included in this recipe?
Do you think this is a
healthy recipe?
Why/Why not?
Salad recipe is a good,
easy recipe for younger
students.
Recipe Conversion Answers
Nutrition Education in Math –
Middle/High School
• Double or halve a recipe to practice conversions
between measurements (8 oz = ½ lb, 1 cup = 16
Tbsp).
• Food label calculations
• Statistics students can hold a cafeteria taste test and
evaluate the results
• Have students track how many servings of food they
eat from each food group for a week.
Then have them create a table to
organize the information.
INCLUDING PHYSICAL ACTIVITY
Physical Activity in Math Preschool
• Use physical activity
examples when discussing
the concept of time or
counting (I ran for 1-2-3-4-5
minutes!)
• When discussing a number,
use physical activity to
demonstrate/solidify the
concept.
Let’s give it a try!
• Let’s hop from dot to dot.
• Hop 3 times.
• Back to start.
• Hop 7 times.
• Which was further?
• How much further did you
go?
Physical Activity in Math –
Elementary School
• Math relay races
• Use physical activity to help teach/reinforce
basic concepts
• Utilize teamwork and physical activity to solve
problems at the board
Let’s play!
•2 + 4 =
•3 x 6 =
•25 ÷ 5 =
•100 – 63 =
Keep Physical Activity on Students’
Minds
• Use physical activity examples for story problems• Sam burns “x” calories per hour walking around the
neighborhood. How many calories does he burn in “y”
minutes?
• Tina lifts weights in the afternoons. She lifts weights
with her arms 10 times to make a set. If she does 3
sets during her workout, how many times did she lift
the weights?
• Have students track the amount of physical activity they
get for several days. Then have them create their own
chart, table or graph to organize the information.
Physical Activity in Math –
Middle/High School
Talk about it…
• Use physical activity examples for story problems
• Have students track the amount of physical activity
they get for a week and use it in graphing and
averaging lessons.
• Practice conversions using the amount of physical
activity students previously recorded for the weeki.e. Convert 10 hours of activity into seconds or
convert 10 miles into meters.
Middle/High School, cont.
• …Then do it!
• Play “The Blob Game”
• Have teams compete in a Math Relay
• Engage students with “This or That”